There is a species in Heaven that act as God's emissaries. These messengers of God are known as angels, they are intelligently active and can be manifested to mankind. Angels are celestial beings that are of the creation before the world began and are revealed to many here on earth. While they live in heaven, God sometimes uses them to communicate His messages to us. Often, angels will appear as humans and at other times take on a celestial appearance. They are sent to announce, to guard and instruct, to warn, to minister and to carry out God's judgment.

Through the many Biblical references to angels, we can piece together descriptions of them. There seems to be two orders of angels, the Seraphim and Cherubim, an archangel is of the higher order. They have some of the divine characteristics, such as spiritual forms and some human characteristics such as limited knowledge and the ability to fail. They have similar emotions as we do and like us, have free will. They worship God, can love and hate and have thrones, dominions, powers, virtues and principalities. The angels do God's bidding in the Third Heaven and in our own cosmos as well. Capable of immense power and influence on the earth, angels can bless or execute God's judgment. Unseen by man, they can be an ever-present help and comfort to us personally and are present at Christian assemblies. The angels are capable of falling and the devil has his angels.

Oma Ellis describes angels in this way: "Electricity is the only word I can think of to describe the feeling when angelic beings began to intrude upon my prayer and meditation periods... Angels, visions and dreams are channels through which God works. Angels are God's created beings who carry his messages. While we should not place our faith directly in angels, much is to be accomplished by placing our faith in a God who rules and directs angels. We owe our worship to the God who gives our angels charge over us, they are living, active beings who work for the Lord on our behalf."

I have experienced what I believed was the presence of angels in near death situations. David describes the guardian angels of those that dwell in the secret place of the most High: "He shall give His angels charge over you to keep you in all His ways. They shall bear you up in their hands, lest you dash your foot against a stone."

A Cherubim was stationed at the entrance of the Garden of Eden. Angels appeared to Abraham and intervened in the sacrifice of Isaac. Two angels came to Lot's home and were seen by the people of Sodom. Angels have appeared and spoken to many people in the Old and New Testaments, too many to mention.

In the general sense of messenger, the ministers of the gospel can also be termed as angels. If we were to extend the general sense to the office of the Christ, Jesus too would be considered a messenger of the covenant. It is in this light that we need to consider possible angelic inferences of Jesus in the Apocalypse.

Angels are revealed especially to us in John's revelation. The angels of the historical churches are revealed in the Seven Churches of Asia. An angel with a strong voice asked, "Who is worthy to open the book and to loose the seals thereof?" The only One found worthy to open the book was the Lamb who had been slain and "He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth." It is through an angel that we find that Babylon is fallen and another warns mankind of the wrath of God as the penalty of taking the Mark of the Beast. Yet another angel comes and offers incense in a golden bowl with the prayers of saints and casts it upon the earth. A seventh angel appears on a cloud with a rainbow on his head in the last days when the mystery of God should be finished. At this time the revelation of John will be again be revealed and the two witnesses shall rise up. Many angels are about the throne with the beasts and the elders. Four angels hold the Four Corners of the earth and another angel from the east has the seal of the Living God to seal the 144,000 and through an angel the gospel will be preached. These angels work together and cause the sickle to gather the clusters of the vine of the earth. These are the grapes that are ripe unto harvest. "And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God." Jesus speaks of the angelic reapers that shall "gather out of His Kingdom all things that offend and them that do iniquity." The seven angels whom stand before God take their trumpets and pour the vials of wrath, bringing tribulation on the earth. A final angel has the key to the bottomless pit and the power to shut up satan for a thousand years, then one of the seven angels shows John the New Jerusalem. [378, 380, 384, 415, Psalms 91, Revelation, Matthew 13]

The Lord has given Christians the grace to reconcile the children to their Fathers